Discovery of novel drugs for Chagas disease: is carbonic anhydrase a target for antiprotozoal drugs?

Introduction: Carbonic anhydrase (CA) arose significant interest as a potential new target for Chagas disease since its discovery in in 2013. Benznidazole and Nifurtimox have been used for Chagas disease treatment for 60 years despite all efforts done for obtaining more efficient treatments, acting in the acute and chronic phases of illness, with fewer side effects and resistance induction.

Areas Covered: We discuss the positive and negative aspects of CA (TcCA) studies as a target for developing new drugs.

Visceral sensitivity modulation by faecal microbiota transplantation: the active role of gut bacteria in pain persistence.

Recent findings linked gastrointestinal disorders characterized by abdominal pain to gut microbiota composition. The present work aimed to evaluate the power of gut microbiota as a visceral pain modulator and, consequently, the relevance of its manipulation as a therapeutic option in reversing postinflammatory visceral pain persistence. Colitis was induced in mice by intrarectally injecting 2,4-dinitrobenzenesulfonic acid (DNBS).

Free Fatty Acids Signature in Human Intestinal Disorders: Significant Association between Butyric Acid and Celiac Disease.

Altered circulating levels of free fatty acids (FFAs), namely short chain fatty acids (SCFAs), medium chain fatty acids (MCFAs), and long chain fatty acids (LCFAs), are associated with metabolic, gastrointestinal, and malignant diseases. Hence, we compared the serum FFA profile of patients with celiac disease (CD), adenomatous polyposis (AP), and colorectal cancer (CRC) to healthy controls (HC). We enrolled 44 patients (19 CRC, 9 AP, 16 CD) and 16 HC.

Evaluation and comparison of short chain fatty acids composition in gut diseases.

Background: An altered (dysbiosis) and unhealthy status of the gut microbiota is usually responsible for a reduction of short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) concentration. SCFAs obtained from the carbohydrate fermentation processes are crucial in maintaining gut homeostasis and their determination in stool samples could provide a faster, reliable and cheaper method to highlight the presence of an intestinal dysbiosis and a biomarker for various gut diseases. We hypothesize that different intestinal diseases, such as celiac disease (CD), adenomatous polyposis (AP) and colorectal cancer (CRC) could display a particular fecal SCFAs' signature.

Differential Responses of Colorectal Cancer Cell Lines to Strains Isolated from Healthy Donors and Colorectal Cancer Patients.

The metabolites produced by the host's gut microbiota have an important role in the maintenance of intestinal homeostasis, but can also act as toxins and induce DNA damage in colorectal epithelial cells increasing the colorectal cancer (CRC) chance. In this scenario, the impact of some of the components of the natural human gastrointestinal microbiota, such as (), at the onset of CRC progression remains controversial. Since under dysbiotic conditions it could turn into a pathogen, the aim of this study was to compare the effect of ' strains (isolated from CRC patients and healthy subjects' stools) on the proliferation of different colorectal cells lines.